


On A Mission

by Dragonite_Postal_Service



Series: Nuzleaf Tales [1]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon
Genre: ( they’re talked about at least ), Angst with a Happy Ending, Comedy, Crushes, Dialogue Heavy, Friendship, Gen, Light Angst, Not Beta Read, Nuzleaf can’t let go of what he did under Dark Matter, kids being kids, this is a tie-in to the universe of a tumblr blog, this was meant to be pure comedy but it turned into mild angst oops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:21:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26134141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonite_Postal_Service/pseuds/Dragonite_Postal_Service
Summary: His son’s best friend has always been an odd kid, but nothing took the cake for his strange behavior like the morning he turned up claiming to be on “serious business”.This is a tie-in to the blog askmrnuzleaf !
Relationships: Konohana | Nuzleaf & Partner Character (Pokemon Mystery Dunegon), Konohana | Nuzleaf & Player Character (Pokemon Mystery Dungeon), Konohana | Nuzleaf/Ohbem | Beheeyem (mentioned)
Series: Nuzleaf Tales [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1897753
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	On A Mission

**Author's Note:**

> So I know I promised the Nuzleaf Tales like... a while ago on my blog but writer’s block was a pain and it really did take me forever to deal with. But now hopefully I can set the ball rolling now to write more parts of this little mini-series! 
> 
> askmrnuzleaf has become one of my favorite blogs I’ve ever run and I’m super thrilled enough people even wanted to see in-universe stories from it. Nuzleaf is a joy to work with in writing and drawing alike and I’m always happy doing work related to the blog!
> 
> And yes, this is about Nuzleaf and one of the Beheeyem’s (specifically the one who allied with the player and partner near the game’s climax) relationship. I’ve hinted at it in some answers but I have been dying to address it directly.
> 
> All that out of the way, I hope you enjoy this little story and what more will be posted down the line!

_Knock, knock._

“One sec!” Nuzleaf called, stumbling away from his hay pile bed with a shirt barely halfway over his head. 

It took some fumbling with the fabric, but he eventually got his head through the collar almost as soon as his hand found the front doorknob. He pulled the door in, only for his brow to lift at the sight of the Cyndaquil on the other side. 

The skies above were still pink with the hue of early dawn and the sunlight shining down on Serene Village was altogether meager. Nuzleaf scrubbed at his eyes and suppressed a yawn, looking down at his neighbor.

“Mmh... mornin’, Dom. You here for Lu?” He shifted his gaze from the child to the pink sky above, without even a sun to shield his tired eyes from. “You sure came early, child. Were you two due to leave for Lively Town this mornin’ or somethin’?”

“No, we still have three more days of leave left,” Dominic shook his head before his expression turned dark. “I’m here to talk to you about something. It’s important.”

Admittedly, seeing his lively and playful young neighbor turn so serious unnerved Nuzleaf a tad. He nevertheless opened his door further, beckoning for Dominic to come inside. “Uh, well, let’s talk, then.”

He scuttled inside quickly, taking a seat at Nuzleaf’s table in mere seconds. Dominic’s expression had not softened in the slightest and his uncharacteristically intense expression bore into Nuzleaf. Swallowing the lump that had been forming in his throat, the grass type took a seat across from the child. He rested his hands awkwardly on the table and mustered a small grin. If _Dominic_ of all Pokémon had something urgent to say, there was no doubt it was an incredibly serious matter. Despite his rapidly quickening heartbeat, Nuzleaf managed to speak calmly.

“So... what’s this important thing?”

Dominic glanced from side to side before leaning onto the table, planting his paws on its surface. He glared intensely at Nuzleaf, only breaking his gaze once to, once again, check the room for any prying eyes. Nuzleaf felt his throat tighten. This was going to be worse than he thought. It couldn’t be... the return of Dark Matter, could it?

“So when are you going to ask out Mr. Beheeyem?”

Suddenly, everything came crashing down. Nuzleaf clutched his chest, sighing sharply in relief. 

“Arceus above!” he exclaimed. “All that buildup to ask me THAT?! Sheesh... there’s my heart attack for the day... ya had me scared, kid! I thought this was somethin’ serious!”

Dominic slammed his little paws on the table, which produced a rather meager thump. “It IS serious!”

“It’s barely the crack o’ dawn and you nearly give me a stroke just to ask about some relationship you _think_ exists? How is this serious?!”

Dominic hopped up in his seat, planting his paws on his hips. “Because I’m a member of the Expedition Society! And when a Pokémon is troubled, it’s our job to help!”

“Look, kid,” Nuzleaf sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I appreciate the concern, but I’d _also_ appreciate if you respected my privacy and not... w-well, push yourself into the business some romance you’re just imaginin’ in the first place.”

“No, no!” Dominic shook his head, reaching into the leather Expedition Society bag that seldom left his hip. “I’m being told I should help! Look!”

After this rude awakening, Nuzleaf was hardly in the mood to humor the child any longer. Nevertheless, he huffed and dragged himself over to Dominic’s side of the table. The Cyndaquil withdrew a strange device from the bag, some flat glass panel adorned with orbs in a rainbow of colors. Nuzleaf raised an eyebrow. It did seem rather familiar... hadn’t he seen Luciano carrying one of those before?

The glass, or rather, the screen, lit up at Dominic’s touch. Looking over his shoulder didn’t provide the clearest of views, but Nuzleaf could make out dozens of colorful icons linked by a web of white lines that stretched even beyond what the screen could show. Dominic continued tapping away, making the screen scroll and reveal more pieces of its strange map of links. Nuzleaf watched, fascinated. A few clicks later and Dominic had zoomed onto a familiar icon—Nuzleaf’s own face. He squinted to read the text bubble above his portrait, but at the angle, it was just about impossible.

Thankfully, Dominic turned and presented the tablet, allowing Nuzleaf to take it for a closer look. Sure enough, there was a small message connected to his image which he could now read clearly.

_“You see, there’s this Pokémon I can’t stop thinking about...”_

He blinked. Was he reading this right? Was Dominic’s little piece of glass—and magic, apparently— _selling him out?_ He frowned. No, that was ridiculous! How could this little machine know what he was thinking? 

He glared suspiciously over at Dominic before sliding his strangely invasive gadget in front of him again.

“...Okay, Dom, look. If this is a prank, it’s on my last nerve...”

“Not a prank!” Dominic insisted, snatching up the gadget. “The Connection Orb shows problems Pokémon are having! That’s how Expedition Society members like me know when to help! And see, look, when I click here for more details...”

Dominic tapped away at the screen again. 

“See, look!” he cried, flashing the screen to Nuzleaf. “It says it right here! _‘Help Nuzleaf talk to Beheeyem’._ That’s just what the job says!” 

While Nuzleaf was busy gawking in disbelief, Dominic beamed confidently up at him. “So as a member of the Expedition Society, it’s my job to help! I told Lu that we should do this mission while we were still in Serene Village,” the Cyndaquil trailed off, glaring at Luciano’s closed bedroom door. “But you know what he said? ‘That one’s all you, Dominic’! Can you believe it?!”

Nuzleaf pressed his forehead into the closest wall with a groan. “No. No, I surely can’t...”

“So—what can I do to help? Deliver a letter? Find you guys a spot to meet? Talk to him for you?”

“Listen, Dom,” Nuzleaf snapped back. “I don’ care what your little... privacy-invadin’ toy there says you need to do. But this isn’t somethin’ I want—or need—any help with.”

“But the Connection Orb would never show it to me if it wasn’t something that was really bothering you!” the Cyndaquil insisted, hopping down from his chair to grab the hem of Nuzleaf’s shirt. “I just wanna help you, Mr Nuzleaf!”

Nuzleaf stared ahead at the wall, unable to keep his exasperation from slowly melting away at the child’s earnest tone. And it certainly didn’t help that he could just _feel_ the baby-doll eyes that Dominic was trying to use on him. 

Letting out a sigh of defeat, he knelt down to Dominic’s eye level and placed a hand on his shoulder. 

“You’re a sweetheart, kid. I appreciate ya tryna help me and all. It’s just... well, this was a problem I was gonna let time take care of.”

Dominic’s head tilted. “What do you mean, Mr Nuzleaf?”

“Well... y’know. Just wait til’ enough time passes, and these feelings go away. Just let ‘me pass on their own.”

“That’s so sad, though... if Mr Beheeyem makes you happy... and if you love him, why would you want those feelings to go away?”

“I mean,” Nuzleaf averted his eyes and stared down at the floor. “Sometimes... sometimes these things just ain’t meant to be.”

The frown on Dominic’s muzzle deepened. “How do you know if you never asked him?”

“Shucks, you’re persistent,” Nuzleaf chuckled weakly. “I’ve never said anythin’ because it’s for his sake. I don’t think I’d care that much if he’d end up rejection’ me. I just know someone like me’s better off alone. Or at least, not with him. I... I was the reason the Beheeyem fell to Dark Matter, Dom.”

“Huh...?”

The memory made him shudder. “It was early on when Dark Matter took control o’ me. Back then, I was able to fight it. It was more or less a voice in my head that tried to tell me what to do, but I know for a fact I was able to ignore it. Least, at first...”

Nuzleaf shifted, going from kneeling to sitting. “I know them Beheeyem and I met back then. They were livin’ out of this cave up north. Suspicious of everyone. From what I remember of that time, they told me they’d been driven out of all the settlements and towns they’d tried to join. Them three had been livin’ in that cave because it was the only place other Pokémon hadn’t chased ‘em out of.”

He bit his lip and screwed his eyes shut at the thought of what came next. The memory alone made him feel disgusting, and even though his mind had long since been saved from Dark Matter’s influence, he still edged back to out further distance between himself and his young neighbor. 

“The voice that was Dark Matter gave me an idea, and for some reason I just... gave in immediately. Like _I_ wanted the same thing it did. I ended up convincin’ the Beheeyem to take Dark Matter’s powers. I told them that as long as they stayed with me and Yveltal, they’d never be alone. The reason the Beheeyem became Dark Matter’s pawns... that was because of me. Now, they might still consider me a friend, but if I’m bein’ entirely honest? I don’ trust myself around them.”

“That wasn’t because of you, though,” Dominic insisted, marching close enough to rest his paws on Nuzleaf’s knees. “That was Dark Matter! Like everything else it made you do...”

“Kid, that was so early on when it had ahold of me!” the grass type cried. “I just went along with that plan without question! If I was that easy to sway—“

“Dark Matter was still there! Can’t you have more faith in yourself? Mr Nuzleaf, you still deserve good things, too! You need to stop hanging onto someone in the past who never was you!”

“Dom, your concern is sympathy is nice, but trust me, kid, you have no idea what—“

“YES, I DO!” Dominic howled, throwing down his gadget. “I DO get it!”

Nuzleaf sat in silence, watching Dominic’s chest heave. Smoke stung his nose as it billowed from the Cyndaquil’s back. Dominic’s narrowed eyes relaxed and he stared down at the gadget he’d thrown, quietly hunching into a shameful little ball.

“...I get it, okay?” he mumbled, gingerly picking up the discarded tablet. “I’ve felt that way ever since Xerneas... ‘woke’ me, or whatever.”

Dominic hung his head, clutching the gadget to his chest like a security blanket. “Xerneas, Entei, Arceus... all the legendary Pokémon, they look at me and expect to see Mew. They gave me Mew’s memories and everything. But I’m... I’m not Mew. I’m Dominic. I’m just a kid who was born because Mew sent his spirit into the future to make _someone_ to carry on his mission. And now that Dark Matter’s destroyed, I hate having all these Mew thoughts. Things about needing to leave this world now that my job’s done and making preparations on the stupid slim chance Dark Matter comes back. I’m honored to know that’s who I am, but I’m just a kid! That’s all I really want to be sometimes. I’m just not the Mew from the past and no one gets that.”

“So...” Dominic met his eyes. “We’re not that different. I still think the Mew I used to be, well, he’s not me. So I’m trying to show the world that Dominic and Mew are two different things! Can’t you do the same, Mr Nuzleaf? Show everyone that the Pokémon Dark Matter controlled wasn’t really you?”

Nuzleaf set a hand on Dominic’s head with a tired sigh. “To think you pryin’ into my personal life would turn into this,” he shook his head. “I’m sorry, kid. You’re right. I _am_ too focused on the past. It just ain’t easy to move past all of that. I’ve been livin’ scared it could happen again any minute now... but as far removed from Dark Matter as I want to be, I really haven’t made much headway in bein’ anything more than the guy who used to be its pawn, have I?”

Dominic’s paws grasped Nuzleaf’s hand, lifting it off his head to allow the Cyndaquil to look up at him. He smiled warmly. “Sooo... maybe you can start small trying to change that?”

Nuzleaf huffed, though he was unable to prevent a smile from creeping up onto his face. “Shoot, you’re relentless, kid. Lemme guess what you’re gonna ask...”

Dominic’s smile broke into a full-on grin. 

“Fine, I’ll talk to him. Ya convinced me. All I ask is that you be a bit patient with me, Dom...” the grass Pokémon ruffled Dominic’s fur. “I don’t got the recovery speed you do.”

“Any effort counts!” The Cyndaquil chirped as the gadget in his hands buzzed.

He gasped excitedly, looking down at the screen. Before Nuzleaf could so much as ask, Dominic tore into Luciano’s room, practically kicking the door off its hinges and hollering at the top of his lungs. 

“SEE, LU?! I DID IT! HE AGREED! IT WASN’T A LOST CAUSE!”

“Oh for pity’s sake, kid, can’t you let him sleep for just a few more minutes?!”

“It’s okay,” came Luciano’s voice, muffled by the hay mattress he had buried himself in. “I heard it all anyway... you guys didn’t exactly try to be quiet...”

“If we were that loud, then I’m sure the neighbors heard!” Dominic’s eyes lit up before he made a break for the door. “That’ll make telling everyone the news so much easier!”

“Wait, tellin’ ‘em what news?!” Nuzleaf shouted after him, not wasting any time in giving chase. “Dom! Get back here!”


End file.
